I just wanted to give a few updates on some of the stuff we have in the works.

The comic we were attempting to make about Project Spark never materialized, and instead, this comic managed to peck its way out the of the shell. Kiko asked me if we had a podcast of this writing process, presumably because it would have been "interesting," but we didn't. And when I think about it, there is no causal chain that results in the strip. The strip is like something we found half-submerged in sand, complete and entire.

When the new site launched a few weeks ago I mentioned it was a work in progress. Erika, Levin and Kenneth have all been hard at work finishing stuff that just wasn’t ready for launch and also taking all the feedback we got into consideration. Well last night we updated the site with a bunch of new features. Let me break it all down for you.

Dead Nation lands on the PS4 today with a few upgrades. The original was a decent twin stick shooter but not really a stand out in my opinion. I’d probably skip this new version if it wasn’t for the Broadcast+ feature. Supposedly it will allow Twitch viewers to spawn items, weapons and even more zombies into the game by typing keywords into the chat. I’m sort of curious how this works so let’s give it a try today.

The fourth or fifth time I tried to explain Bitcoinz™, I started to notice a pattern. But every time I thought I was getting a little closer to real shit, like a cartographer whose previous journeys had prepared me for the next.

You would think retrofitting an unrelentingly charming, polychromatic setting into a team-based shooter would be the hard part, but no. They nailed that part. When you can get in to play Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, holy shit. Not everybody got the memo brand-wise, but believe it: I can banish them. I know how to Snap Party.

I dunno. I would describe the current schedule for Thornwatch as "aggressive" and "ambitious," things I don't normally associate with my associate. It's happening, though. It's really happening.

This is the year that Thornwatch goes from being a hobby that I play with my friends to a game you all can go to the store and buy. That means I need help and that means letting people in on the creation process which so far has been...messy. There was a point during a game a few weeks ago when we decided we needed to alter a word on some of the cards. I said that was gonna take me a while and Mike fehlauer helpfully suggested I just use the “find and replace” command. It dawned on me then that he assumed I had done the smart thing and created all these cards in some sort of easily editable program like Excel or Word. I laughed and watched his face drop as I explained that each of these cards is a multi layered Photoshop file with dozens of layers representing various iterations and ideas. Everyone at the table looked at me like I was insane. “We need to see your files” they said.

We are gonna turn on the stream machine today around 2:00pm PST. We’ll be playing Thief and chatting with folks watching at home. You’ll be able to watch it right here:

A comic which embroiders universal themes.

I was surprised to learn that games that are not Titanfall keep coming out. I grabbed Strider which had come out while I was gone. I also pulled down the FFXIV PS4 beta and I managed to get my hands on a code for Thief which actually won’t come out until tomorrow. I gave each of them a few hours this weekend.

I’m doing a second game night at Snapdoodle toys in Kenmore. This one will be Saturday March 15th from 4 to 8pm. I’ll be playing Tsuro of the Seas this time. Tsuro is a fun game that has you laying tiles down on a board to build and then navigate complex mazes. Tsuro of the Seas is the sequel and adds some fun new elements. Seeing as Gabe and I recently started playing Magic the Gathering there’s a good chance we will also bring our decks. We are novices though so you’ll need go easy on us.

It may not be apparent outside of my own mind, but the "PEIS" has a specific mission to promote games on mobile. PAX10 is more broad. But mobile is an especially scary place to make games right now, and I think there's good to be done thereby. Unlike a lot of games at a show like this, a lot of times you can just grab your phone out of your pocket and buy something you like right there. As magic tricks go, that's a pretty good one. This year's impulse purchases include:

Because he had to spend the week in Spokane, a haunted demiplane universally understood to be a cultural strip-mine, he thought he would "try" Magic to pass the time. "Try" it.

One of the "Stretch Groals" for the DLC Kickstarter was that Kris Straub (of Kris Straub fame) would animate some of them. The first installment of this sacred pact is now delivered. He's on the hook for another one of these, but... wow. I really liked this one. I'm starting to wonder if it should be a thing.

Tycho recently got back into Magic the Gathering and at the time I gave him a fair amount of crap for it. This was a game we played in Junior High. Kids with shoe boxes full of cards would congregate outside the band room during lunch and play on the floor. I knew it was still going strong but for some reason I hadn’t given it much thought in years.